A tow truck operator facing criminal charges for abusing the
legal system has been declared a vexatious litigant, preventing him
from filing new cases without court permission.
Gilroy – A tow truck operator facing criminal charges for abusing the legal system has been declared a vexatious litigant, preventing him from filing new cases without court permission.
The order issued by a San Jose Superior Court last week against Vince Cardinalli Sr., 64, comes as he and several relatives face 98 felony counts and one misdemeanor stemming largely from their former towing businesses and related small-claims lawsuits. Cardinalli and his family have sued more than 2,000 residents from across the state to recover towing and storage fees, leaving a trail of motorists who claim they have had their bank accounts raided and wages attached for cars that were towed long after they had disposed of them. Some defendants have complained that they never owned the vehicles in question, as in the case of John Castro, who filed the motion to have Cardinalli declared a vexatious or an annoying frivolous litigant.
“Vehicle reports obtained from the Department of Motor Vehicles and TriVin, a commercial vendor, suggest that (Cardinalli) falsified the DMV history report submitted to the court,” San Jose Superior Court Judge James P. Kleinberg wrote in his Aug. 2 decision dubbing Cardinalli a vexatious litigant. The decision means that Cardinalli must get prior court permission before filing a case and may be required to post bond before hauling defendants into court.
The discrepancy in Cardinalli’s DMV history report was first pointed out in an April small-claims hearing by Castro, who produced DMV documentation showing he never owned the 1980 BMW that Cardinalli claimed to have towed.
On Monday, Castro said “the system doesn’t have any checks and balances to offset the way” Cardinalli was winning his small-claims cases.
“It’s unbelievable how they’ll keep going,” Castro said. “My motivation was to stop this guy from doing this to people in the future.”
The alleged forgery in the Castro case served as the basis for one of dozens of felony charges filed in June against Cardinalli, his relatives and a former business associate. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has brought criminal charges against his son Paul Stephen Greer, 30 (formerly Vincent Cardinalli Jr.); his daughter Rosemary Ball and her husband Michael Ball; and Jeffrey Horan, who delivered legal documents for both Cardinalli and Greer. In June, a Santa Clara County judge declared Greer a vexatious litigant as well. The entire family and Horan are scheduled to appear Aug. 21 in San Martin Superior Court for arraignment.
District Attorney Dale Lohman declined to comment on the latest vexatious litigant decision, saying only that the criminal investigation is ongoing.
The initial felony complaint filed included 87 counts of attempted grand theft, forgery, and other felony charges, as well as one misdemeanor related to the family’s legal cases and former towing businesses. Last month, the district attorney filed an additional 11 perjury charges against Cardinalli, bringing the total number of charges against the family to 99. If convicted on all counts, Greer faces more than 29 years in prison and his father faces 44 years.
Cardinalli and Greer continue collecting payment on an unknown number of cases they have already won, and have dozens of pending cases that they continue to litigate, according to Greg Adler, an attorney with auto-salvage company Copart Inc. Adler helped the Fairfield company fend off lawsuits from Gree.
“Thankfully, Greer and Cardinalli are facing their criminal cases,” Adler said Monday. “But in order for the wrongs to be truly undone, the courts are going to have to fashion an efficient civil remedy to help past victims get their money back and clear their credit reports of the bogus judgments entered against them.”
